Ashikawa is the first gymnast to get a second world cup beam win in the 2018-2020 series! One more win and the series is hers.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Category: Olympics
U.S. Men’s National Team named
USAG named those who will contend for the 2020 Olympic team.
I was wrong on that. As Dave points out:
The US National Team will be reformed at the National Championships this summer, and that will be the group that moves on to Olympic Trials.
Winter Cup AA champions were based on night 1 results only this year.
1. Sam Mikulak
2. Shane Wiskus
3. Brody Malone
Senior Apparatus winners:
FX: Gage Dyer
PH: Alec Yoder
SR: Alex Diab
VT: Yul Moldauer
PB: Sam Mikulak
HB: Colin Van Wicklen
Click PLAY or watch Sam on YouTube.
Melbourne World Cup FINALS day 2
Beam
G Urara Ashikawa JPN 13.3
S Ondine Achampong GBR 13.166
B Anastasia Bachynska UKR 12.933
Coach Denis Vachon said Ashikawa did 7-8 perfect routines in warm-up.
Floor
G Jade Carey USA 14.366
S Vanessa Ferrari ITA 13.7
B Lara Mori ITA 12.9
Click PLAY or watch Jade’s Floor on Twitter.
Click PLAY or watch Vanessa on Twitter. Now age-29, she looks in fantastic shape.
Vault
G Shin Jeahwan KOR 14.866
S Jorge Vega Lopez GUA 14.783
B Andrey Medvedev ISR 14.55
P Bars
G Vladislav Poliashov RUS 15.2
S Yusuke Tanaka JPN 15.166
B Dinh Phuong Thanh 14.933
Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.
H Bar
G Epke Zonderland NED 14.9
S Milad Karimi KAZ 14.5
B Mitchell Morgans AUS 14.233
Miyachi, Epke’s main competitor for the Olympic spot, fell.
Reports are that Miyachi congratulated Epke on winning the spot. And will not contend in Baku or Doha.
Click PLAY or watch Epke on Twitter.
Read Blythe’s LIVE blog.
Read Lauren’s LIVE blog.
Break the Fall – a book review
Break the Fall by Jennifer Iacopelli was released Feb 18th.
I finished it in less than 24 hours.
That’s surprising since I’m decidedly NOT the target audience for Young Adult / Teen romance.
This novel is heavy on Gymnastics, light on the typical YA cliché teen crushes and rivalries.
Jennifer: For me, when writing sports fiction, the sport itself is what the plot will stem from, so it’s almost impossible for me to write a book about sports that doesn’t heavily include the competition, practices and training that would be a major part of any athlete’s life.
Often we’ll see books about an athlete that’s injured or an athlete that had to give up their sport as an exploration of their identity away from the thing they love, but that’s been done so much, I’m more interested in what it takes to strive to compete at the highest levels, to try to win and what happens when you do (or don’t). …
And the Gymnastics is well informed.
I assumed Jennifer was an ex-gymnast or coach, but she’s actually a kick-butt librarian. Her sports were tennis and softball.
Jennifer: “… what I worked on the most was making sure the gymnasts were portrayed as realistically as possible, in and out of the gym. …”
The American National Team Director is lead away in handcuffs, accused of tampering with drug test results. Later charged with sexual assault.
When the rest of the Federation supports him, the equivalent of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee suspends the equivalent of USAG and delivers the U.S. Olympic team to a new coach only weeks before the Tokyo Olympics.
That’s a good plot device.
Jennifer loosely based the new Olympic coach on Kim Zmeskal.
She was inspired to write a Gymnastics novel after following the Nassar / USAG scandal: “… people in a position of power abusing athletes or failing to protect athletes from abuse …”
The story starts at Olympic trials 2020. Ends on the last day of Apparatus Finals in Tokyo.
If you are wondering whether your gymnasts should read this book it does have a lot of profanity. And there is discussion of sexual abuse though none of that is graphic.
The audio version is available on Scribd and Audible.
Shannon’s scrunchie to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum
Nile Wilson moves to Manchester Academy
Nile was 5th in the Rio Olympics. And won the Bronze medal on H Bar.
He won the 2018 Commonwealth Games with 84.950.
You’d think he’d be a lock for the Tokyo team, but a series of injuries have set him back.
Perhaps Manchester will be a fresh start.
Chinese gymnasts denied Melbourne World Cup
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the local organising committee of the Artistic Gymnastics Individual Apparatus World Cup Melbourne confirm that the Chinese team will not compete at the event which runs from 20-23 February in Melbourne, Australia.
… due to the current Australian Government’s travel restrictions relating to the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), the Chinese delegation cannot participate …
This World Cup is an Olympic qualifier.
Angelina, Morgan, Chen Yile – #7
It’s Not All Work
This episode features Morgan’s mom.
Angelina did some snowboarding. Designs leotards.
And Chen Yile lives, plays and trains with her sister / teammates. I love seeing Chow and his big smile in China. He brings FUN to that elite program.
Watch the full program on The Olympic Channel. (14min)
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on Twitter.
Kerri Strug Biopic – ‘Perfect’
… Olivia Wilde is set to direct Kerri Strug biopic Perfect …
The film, based on the book Landing On My Feet, A Diary Of Dreams by Strug and John P. Lopez, tells the true story of the gymnast’s triumph against the odds to win Team USA’s first gold medal at the 1996 Olympics. Strug was hailed as an American hero when she completed her final vault at the Atlanta games on a badly injured ankle …
The partners will likely be hoping for a similar trajectory to well-received 2017 sports movie I, Tonya, which scored breakout box office and multiple Oscar nominations.
Riley McCusker training with Jade Carey
Her coach under investigation, Riley has moved to Arizona Sunrays just months before the Tokyo Olympics.
She’s planning on Florida for the 2020–21 season.
Heart this on Instagram.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 